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Monday, June 2, 2014

Week 2 in Bend

It's been chilly here in the mornings, like 50-60 degrees, and we are still getting acclimated to Bend. This means I've got sweatpants right next to the bed, to jump into when I get up, and socks are a must on the tile floors! I will NEVER, however, wear socks with sandals, which is a very common sight here in Bend (a Birkenstock store actually still exists on the main drag). Please, people. It's not the 90s.

This is how I heat the house, and sometimes in the morning I have my coffee in front of it:

It's a very common way to heat homes here, and almost every single home uses stove heat, or some combination of stove and electric cadet heat (which are these little wall heaters that I suspect are expensive to run). While our quaint stove runs on gas and is hooked to a thermostat, other people still heat their homes with wood, as evidenced by these giant woodpiles outside many a home. You get a whiff of campfire in the evenings, which, as far as we're concerned, is awesome.

The cats love sleeping by the stove, too:

Once the sun's out, the day warms up and it's t-shirt weather from 11am-3pm. Then it gets cold again, or it might rain randomly during the day. We're quickly learning that we have to be prepared for just about anything. I may even invest in an umbrella!

But yesterday was another gorgeous day, and we discovered a cute little neighborhood by 14th Street and Galveston, with a farm stand:

Paradise Produce - lots of fresh, organic stuff!

Local Oregon berries.

I'm excited to do some canning this summer with all the local produce. I hope to find a place where we can pick our own strawberries and raspberries, because I certainly am not paying $3.50 a pint to can some fruit.One of my favorite things in the world, is a library. I truly believe they are one of the best ways to use tax dollars - they educate and entertain the public, are free, and provide services such as computer training, tutoring, citizenship, etc to immigrants, children, and the elderly, not to mention the illiterate and the poor. Plus in this technological age, you can pretty much download any book you want, from anywhere in the world. We finally got our Oregon driver's licenses and were able to therefore get a library card!

I borrowed some books for writing inspiration and a book on mushroom hunting/foraging, which is a skill I hope to learn so we can add to our diet when we're backpacking. You get sick of dehydrated meals after a few days on the trail, and fresh mushrooms would be amazing with fresh fish...

Then we treated ourselves to doughnuts at the local doughnut truck - Glazed and Amused. Because learning makes you hungry. If you're ever in Bend, this place is located on Greenwood Avenue, just east of Bond street. Here in Bend, as opposed to Los Angeles, you don't have to chase down your favorite food truck - they have permanent parking spots. Chalk one up for Bend.

Customized doughnuts, much like Donut Friend in Highland Park. DELISH. We got a maple glazed one, topped with graham crackers, and "zombie bites," which are basically donut holes, with your choice of topping (cinnamon and sugar, our fave).

We spent the rest of our weekend doing home stuff and getting the last of our boxes emptied and stored away. By this, I mean I dumped out all the contents on the floor and stored away the box itself. Piece by piece, I pick up one thing and then another, as I pass the pile during the day, and put it in its proper place. Yep, that's my method.I did clear off my desk enough to be able to start writing, and today, I began a new story. So look out, world, my twisted thoughts are comin' at ya someday soon!